06/01/2012 Coalition for Debtor Education

WHAT WE DO:

The Coalition for Debtor Education (CDE) is in its fifteenth year. The CDE mission is to help consumers, primarily vulnerable populations, better understand and manage their personal finances. Classes cover basic topics like saving, banking, using credit wisely, managing debt.

Now that student debt has surpassed credit card debt, CDE offers both preventive and remedial information on its roster of topics. Programs for high school students include a segment on financial aid and how to budget as a college student. And CDE has partnered with the Fordham Law Financial Aid department to train other financial educators in NYC about student loan issues both for students planning to attend post-secondary school and for individuals with outstanding student debt.

WHAT WE OFFER:

CDE continues its tradition of sponsoring an annual conference on timely financial literacy issues. This year, Eleni Constantine spoke about the role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and received our Friend of the Consumer award.

CDE has a corps of 180 trained volunteers. Last year CDE delivered more than 125 classes to more than 3,000 consumers. We anticipate that those numbers will increase for 2012 .